If last Saturday was a bit of a slow episode, they made up for it in Episode 15.  They literally threw everything they could into the hour making it just a tiny bit overwhelming.  I am still trying to figure out what is part of the con, what is unexpected, and who is on which side.  At this point, I am not sure if the characters even have the answers to these questions.  We will discuss the pros and cons of this style of storytelling in a while, but first, let’s chat about the highlight events of Episode 15.

A Threat

When we left off last week President Choi was hanging out in Team Con’s not so secret hideout.  He threatens Seung Il and Jung Do for a while then walks off.  But now the real question is… How did President Choi know where their headquarters were?  Is there a leak among Team Con?

A Betrayal

The presence of a traitor is confirmed and we find out that it is Perm Gangster.  Bitter of Jung Do’s betrayal from two years prior, he had sold information about their plan to President Choi.  Somewhere along the way, he began to feel bad for his actions and when Jung Do questioned Team Con he confirmed that he was the traitor.  Jung Do apologizes and Perm Gangster agrees to do a double cross and betray President Choi.

An Attack

Sadly, Perm Gangster doesn’t get a chance to put his double cross into play because Director Ahn is waiting at Computer Con’s hangout to take the fake papers back.  Both Computer Con and Perm Gangster are severally beaten but still alive.

It is super cute how worried Loan Shark Madame and her Secretary are for their safety.  I like when everyone gets all cute and supportive.

You and I Stem From The Same Root

I had almost forgotten that The Chairman had a con going on with The Mayor?  Buoyed by his new financial supporter, The Mayor is ready to cut President Choi free.  Bitter about being destroyed two years previously Director Ahn had been running his own long-term con along with The Mayor.  He had been a plant by The Mayor in order to find dirt on President Choi so The Mayor could break away from crooked politics.

Defeated, President Choi agrees to back off and let The Mayor create this supposed corruption free utopia.  However, he throws out a barb that it is only a matter of time before The Mayor realizes that he is no better than anyone else.  If he was truly an upright man, he wouldn’t have gotten in with President Choi in the first place.  As President Choi puts it, they stem from the same root.

Everyone is Playing Musical Chairs.

So now is when the plot gets complicated.  Now that President Choi and The Mayor have parted ways, alliances are shifting.  President Choi calls in Crooked Detective in a quest to find out dirt on The Mayor and Jung Do.  The Mayor is now being blackmailed by Director Ahn and advised of The Chairman’s allegiance to Jung Do.

In a move to stay in power, The Mayor via Director Ahn goes to The Chairman and tells the man to dump Jung Do if he wants to be in charge of the new land development.  If not, they will cut him out and give the money to someone else.  This is too big a temptation to the businessman and he agrees to cut Jung Do off.

The last scene is President Choi calling The Mayor and informing him that they needed to renegotiate.  It turns out that President Choi discovered that Seung Il’s brother in law had not actually committed suicide eight years previous.   Judging from The Mayor expression, I would say that he is guilty and has lost the upper hand in this bad guy game of shuffle.

My Thoughts:

There are both good and bad aspects to the way the writer is doing this drama.  On one hand, I am always surprised when there is a sudden plot twist.  The complete lack of foreshadowing makes it exciting since I feel that I am finding things out at the same time the characters are.

The downside is that I have no clue where things are going to go.  I also have no clue what is actually part of the plan or what is  a complete disaster that has to be fixed on the fly.  It can make a viewer frustrated when you have to watch the good guys just kind of standby as events unfold.  I much prefer the smart style of con where I feel that Jung Do is in complete control that we witnessed in the first half of the drama.  I guess I will just have to sit back and see what happens in the finale.  I just hope our Con Team ends up being more proactive and less reactive for this last con.

Til next time,

Kmuse